Music lessons - how much do you charge / pay please

Been made redundant from my classroom music job in September and have had several folks asking me for piano lessons. I am qualified and experienced with degree etc and can enter pupils for exams if they wish.

I wonder if you could help me refine my charges as I hate talking about money and feel really embarassed when people ask - need to be more buisiness - like and confident in my prices.

So, what do you charge / pay for music lessons. Does it change on age/ability or duration of lesson? I would prefer to go to pupil's houses as it means I don;t have have buisiness use on my house insurance (and .,.er..,. tidy up the toys etc around the piano!).

Also, do you charge / pay for books? I usually choose with parents/pupils one good 'core' book then add to it myself with CD backing tracks, arrnagemnts of favourite songs, good exercises etc using Sibelius software at home.

I also live in the North East but would be interested in prioces from all over UK (world?).

£27/ hour, but we split it into weekly sessions of 30mins each which works out at £13.50 per lesson. Another teacher asked for £20 an hour, but we had to do one hour sessions every week. Nd we kind of preferred the other teacher.

I pay £9 per 1/2 hour for piano at the teacher's house. She has said she doesn't increase it once a family starts, and my ds started nearly 9 years ago, and that was considered quite cheap then, so I'd say JesusGirl's price would probably be more normal now. She provides all books. I know my sister used to have to go and buy all the books which she considered to be a real pain - the physically having to get to a music shop rather than the cost.If you travel though, you costs will be more with petrol and wear and tear on your car, and you won't be able to fit people in one after another which will lessen your potential earning.We're in the Midlands.

Round here (NW) £12.50 per half hour is fairly normal.Usually teachers gets the books and we reimburse her, but would be great to be loaned some books.

I think it's entirely reasonable to charge more for more advance players, say post- grade 4, but I've never heard of anyone doing that. Or to offer 20 min lessons for littlest. What instrument will you teach?

I agree with roisin. Type up your charges and T&C. Our piano teacher I suspect is shy to talk about money as well. So she gives us bills etc all typed up. When she increased her charges from £26 to £27, I felt the awkwardness in her voice when she told me! I

Around here (SE) teachers charge between £14-£18 per half hour. Most reduce the fee in proportion for a 20 minute lesson and charge slightly more for post grade 5 students as they usually need a longer session and require increased preparation time.

You can also write a simple contract which sets out fees, charges for music, arrangements for missed lessons and the amount of notice that a student needs to give if they wish to stop. If you join the ISM or MU they can probably give suitable advice.

mumblecrumble, do you have an accountant? It might be worth having a chat with someone to find out which costs are tax deductable and how much you should leave aside for tax bills, national insurance and holiday or pension costs too.

In SWLondon outskirts I pay £25/half hourDD1 is 8 and just done Initial gradeDD2 is 6 and about to start

I used to pay £17/half hour but moved to another teacher. He is expensive I know, but so much better than the teacher before that i don't mind. Well I do mind obviously paying £250/term per child (!) but he is so good with DD1 that I can swallow it.

We are in a major city in SW and pay £15 per half hour for private piano lessons at teacher's house. This is for a beginner, but I'm not aware that the cost increases with level. We pay per lesson, and there is a 24hr cancellation policy - i.e. we are charged if we cancel <24hrs before the lesson. The teacher gets books and we reimburse.

Hi MumbleI'm in the NE too, I had lessons until five and a half years ago when DS was born (then it all fell apart a bit). I paid £12 per half hour and bought my own books.Bit of a hijack - whereabouts in the NE are you, because DS will be six in the summer and I might well be looking for a piano teacher ...

I'm in the SW, and when I stopped learning the piano 10 years ago, my mum was paying £10/half hour (not including books). My DD now has a piano teacher who charges £12/half hour (again not including books). Both teachers were in their own homes - to be honest I have never thought about a teacher going to the pupil's house.

We pay a flat rate of EUR 60 per month (Munich, Germany) for 11 months of the year. The lessons last 30 minutes, with no lessons during school holidays. Lessons are held at the teacher's house. We also pay for the books, which the teacher selects, but she tells you which other students are about to finish the relevant book so you can buy it from them secondhand if they are willing to sell. Teacher is qualified, very experienced and, erm, super strict (i.e. Korean Tiger-Mother-type) who requires not only plenty of practice between lessons,but but written pieces of music theory homework too. Glad she teaches DD and not me ....